


Dammit Kev, I'm a Xenobiologist not a Doctor

by closetcellist



Series: Lil' Bit of Lovecraft [2]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Desert Bluffs, Dubious Science, Eldritch Abomination Kevin, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 19:38:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1660067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closetcellist/pseuds/closetcellist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Javier experiences some qualms and is a bad Strex Corp employee. Kevin is re-educated. Again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dammit Kev, I'm a Xenobiologist not a Doctor

Javier had transitioned from viewing Kevin as an object of scientific interest to a scientifically-interesting person fairly quickly. Some might argue that there is little difference between those two things, but people who don’t understand the vast emotional gulf between “object” and “person” are probably not who you want to listen to. He knew Kevin had a crush on him, as he demonstrated by his continuing to break StrexCorp rules about tangents and work-focus and his continuous attempts to get him to go out with him for a healthy StrexCorp lunch or dinner or once weekly-allotted alcoholic beverage of choice. Javier intended to accept one of these offers soon; he just hadn’t decided which.

StrexCorp itself had never made that mental transition. Or rather, they’d never ceased to view Kevin as a Class 5 Threat, even though he came in for re-education dutifully with very little fuss every time he misstepped or misspoke. No one classified as Class 3 or lower was required to come in for re-education. Those deemed less dangerous were generally fined. Those considered more dangerous were artificially altered, generally, Javier had gleaned, though this wasn’t his division and he was rarely allowed access to the more human Citizens, with drugs. Anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, sedatives, whatever else they’d made themselves. And it generally worked. Few Citizens were called in for re-education more than once.

Since he’d joined Strex, Javier had seen Kevin brought in seven times, and he was certain the first time he’d seen it was not the first time Kevin had been re-educated. He was certain of this because even then Kevin had hesitated, just a little, before crossing the lab threshold. When spoken to about it, outside of Headquarters, Kevin expressed a desire never to do anything that would be considered breaking the rules, as if he never had. He didn’t consciously remember any of his visits, but the sense memory of the place was tied to deeply felt negative feelings, Javier observed, which had to have been built up over time. And when Javier saw the procedure Strex employed to fix Kevin (and only Kevin), he knew why those feelings had survived the standard memory loss.

It was a form of electroconvulsion therapy, they’d told him, though as far as Javier could tell, Kevin exhibited symptoms of neither clinical depression nor mania. After the third time, just about when he was making the mental transition from Kevin-as-object to Kevin-as-person, he’d cornered one of the technicians who’d explained that it was something to do with resonance. The resonance of the soul, was what Javier had taken it to mean, though that wasn’t how Emily had described it. It was a bit too metaphysics for him, but he’d gotten the gist. They were trying to change Kevin from the inside out, as opposed to the others, with the drugs, working from the outside in. The more he came to view Kevin as a person, the less he liked the idea.

He knew Kevin was coming in today—they’d asked him to prep the room this time, which was ridiculous. This was their experiment, which, in his opinion, _obviously_ wasn’t working, and the less he was involved, the better. It took him longer than he’d planned, since this wasn’t his job. He heard approaching footsteps and realized with a start that there might shortly be a problem.

Kevin had never seen him here—he knew that Javier worked at Headquarters, doing “science things” but he’d never seen him _in this room_. He’d never treated him with the strained deference he offered Director Douglas, who conducted the re-education/resonance experiments, and Javier really didn’t want that to start. As Kevin stumbled into the room, he realized that what he wanted probably didn’t matter to the universe.

He was about to try to make a break for it when he saw Kevin stagger. Kevin didn’t stagger and he didn’t stumble; he walked with an obnoxious amount of pep. So Javier didn’t leave. He got to Kevin’s side just as the other seemed to lose his battle with balance for good. “Javier!” Kevin said muzzily as Javier caught him. He smiled, eyes a little unfocused, but blinked slowly a few times as he started to realize something was off. “What’re you doing here?” he asked with honest, if blurred, confusion. “Did I go to th’ wrong room?”  
  
“No, Kev, you’re in the right place. I was just…snooping,” he said, keeping an eye on the door. He was certain Douglas would disapprove of him interacting with the subject right before a re-education attempt, though Javier’s general feelings about Douglas were that he could go fuck himself.

Kevin wrapped his arms around Javier, partly to steady himself and partly, Javier knew, because he was an unrepentant opportunist. “Hmm, you could—could be aninvestig’tive reporter. If you get tired of science,” Kevin slurred out, and Javier wasn’t sure if he was being complimented or offered a job.

“Did you take something?” Javier asked, but he could see Kevin’s attention was wandering. “Kevin. Did they give you something?”  
  
“Jus’ a shot,” Kevin mumbled. “It’s jus’ a shot i’s not even a big deal. I jus’ didn’t. Didn’t wanna come in. ‘S silly,” he looked embarrassed, even as he continued to cling to Javier. “I jus’ couldn’t….couldn’t go through th’ door. ‘S like being scared of your first dentist appoin’ment. Silly.”

Javier tried to pretend his interest was purely job related. After all, having any kind of drugs in his system would alter the parameters of the resonance experiment and would make his safety during the procedure more difficult to ensure. Ensuring Kevin’s basic safety was Javier’s job, so they really should have consulted him before giving Kevin anything, though Javier realized they were probably just covering their asses, having him in the corner like the paramedics at a stunt show. They didn’t really _care_. Now, Javier was worried. And as he heard other footsteps in the hall he became even more worried.

He helped Kevin over to the table, where he gently detached him. “I’ve got to go, Kev,” he said quietly. “I can’t get caught in here. But listen, you’ll be okay. And I’ll meet you after, all right?”

Kevin seemed to have only really focused on the last part. “F’r a date?” he asked, looking far too innocently hopeful for someone who still had bloodstains of an unknown origin on his shirt cuffs.

“Sure,” Javier said quickly. He was reasonably certain Kevin wouldn’t remember any of this, but whatever emotional impression was left buried in his subconscious, he wanted it to be a pleasant one. “For a date, Kev. We’ll go have our weekly-allotted drink together.”

“Fab,” Kevin said muzzily as Javier slipped away, back to the observation room where he was supposed to be. Just in time, it turned out, as Douglas, Emily, and two Strex Security Officers entered the room. Javier thought the security was a little much, but Douglas was looking tense and angry and Javier realized he hadn’t asked why Kevin had been brought in this time.

Emily, with the help of one of the officers, got Kevin strapped to the table while Douglas stalked over to the observation room. “Everything ready?” he asked, voice clipped. Kevin must have done something really surprising, Javier thought.  
  
“The equipment is all set. The subject exhibited impaired motor functions when he entered. Is there something I should know that might affect his safety during the procedure?” Javier asked, as understatedly as possible.

“He had to be sedated,” Douglas said, sighing and loosening up just enough that Javier could see that he was worried too, though for vastly different reasons. “The current procedure just isn’t sticking well. We’re going to run a longer series this time.”

Javier looked up sharply. “Sir, I don’t think that’s advisable—“ but Douglas waved him quiet.

“It doesn’t matter. We don’t have a choice. We’re running a longer series, and we’re only stopping if the subject is in danger of expiring. Then and only then, do you understand?” Douglas asked.

Kevin must have done something amazing, Javier thought. I’m sad I missed it. “I understand,” he said grudgingly.

The procedure was…difficult to watch. Javier couldn’t hear anything other than the beeping of the various machines monitoring Kevin’s vital signs and the barometric pressure in the room, but it was difficult to watch Kevin convulsing on the table. He would have left, if given the choice, except he was the only person who could step in and stop this if things did become too dangerous. Javier came to the realization that he was too emotionally compromised to view Kevin as just a subject ever again, and that whether Kevin remembered their conversation of not, he was going to go on a date with him. If he waited too long, he thought, he might not have a Kevin to date.

The procedure finished without Javier finding a convincing excuse to end it early, and Javier slipped out of the observation room as he usually did, heading outside. Kevin emerged about fifteen minutes later, having been cleaned up and given an almost purely aesthetic head dressing to cover the minor burns on his temples. His steps were slow and he weaved even more than he had when he entered the lab room. Javier was at his side the next moment, slipping Kevin’s arm around his shoulders and his own arm around Kevin’s waist.

Kevin was slow on focusing. “Javier?” he asked, confused again. He obviously didn’t remember their earlier meeting. “What’re you doing here?”

Javier decided not to mess around as he looked in Kevin’s eyes and realized he could actually _see_ the void shifting to adjust to the sun they were reacting so slowly. “We’re going to my place, Kev,” he said, and it wasn’t a question.

Kevin laughed. “I-I don’t think I’m really-really up for that right now,” he got out as Javier started them moving. Kevin seemed to be concentrating very hard on moving in a straight line, but it wasn’t working all that well.

Javier rolled his eyes, but smiled. At least they hadn’t burned that out. “I’ll be gentle,” he said wryly. And he was. He drove much more slowly than usual, to accommodate Kevin’s complaints that the world was being too blurry for his stomach to handle. He offered support when Kevin had trouble with the stairs. He waded through Kevin’s only half-joking protests that it was really too soon in their relationship for this sort of thing when he pointed Kevin at the bedroom instead of the couch. But it was only mid-afternoon, and Javier didn’t intend to need that bed for himself until tomorrow at the earliest.

“Stay with me?” Kevin murmured, as Javier got him dressed in borrowed pajama pants and settled in bed.

“Sure,” Javier replied quietly. He grabbed a book and found just enough space on the mattress for himself. He was there when Kevin woke up the next day, feeling find and wondering why he had a bandage on his head and how he’d gotten in Javier’s bed and if he’d missed something really fun and important. When Javier assured him that no, he’d just been feeling ill and, even though Javier kept telling him he wasn’t a doctor, he just had a doctorate, he’d insisted on being taken care of. Kevin blushed an ashy gray and Javier made a decision. This time, he asked Kevin out.

Kevin nearly passed out again, but he managed to say an intelligible ‘yes.’

 


End file.
